Rocketboy
09-26-2008, 03:20 AM
I finished my green pants and "needed" a new t-shirt to go with them so I pulled open the closet doors and started to dig in the stash. I have this great Burda t-shirt pattern that fits really well if you have a slim build like I do.
I pulled out this rather interesting brown jersey with a odd print. It has flowers, birds, top hats and what could be depictions of black slaves all intertwined in this cool loopy vine pattern. They might not be slaves, that's just what everyone I show it to sees so I donno...... They're not negative depictions anyway. I did try to take into account the print and waste some fabric by getting it exactly where I wanted it on the finished shirt. I made both sleeves different and the front is different from the back.
I used self fabric on the neck and it turned out fairly well. Necks on t-shirts are tricky for me being only the third one I've made. The neck binding requires just the right stretch while you sew so it lays properly on your body. I did use a technique I read in a serging book which differs from the pattern instructions. What I do is sew the back and front right shoulder together then attach the neck binding stretching it while I sew. Then sew the left shoulder together with the binding in one step. Fold the binding down and top stitch around the neck. Sounds confusing but it's much easier then trying to sew on the binding in the round, at least for me. You can see in the photo the blue serger loops just sticking out on the inside. My top stitching was a little funky but I used brown thread so it's fairly hard to see.
I choose not to finish the arm or bottom hems but rather left them to roll up. In this case it was a time constraint but when I think about it I like to buy shirts like this so why not make them this way? I do like using the coverstitch machine to finish the hems because it looks really good if it works out. If it doesn't work out right then it takes time to rip out the coverstitching, time which I didn't have so I played it safe.
I pulled out this rather interesting brown jersey with a odd print. It has flowers, birds, top hats and what could be depictions of black slaves all intertwined in this cool loopy vine pattern. They might not be slaves, that's just what everyone I show it to sees so I donno...... They're not negative depictions anyway. I did try to take into account the print and waste some fabric by getting it exactly where I wanted it on the finished shirt. I made both sleeves different and the front is different from the back.
I used self fabric on the neck and it turned out fairly well. Necks on t-shirts are tricky for me being only the third one I've made. The neck binding requires just the right stretch while you sew so it lays properly on your body. I did use a technique I read in a serging book which differs from the pattern instructions. What I do is sew the back and front right shoulder together then attach the neck binding stretching it while I sew. Then sew the left shoulder together with the binding in one step. Fold the binding down and top stitch around the neck. Sounds confusing but it's much easier then trying to sew on the binding in the round, at least for me. You can see in the photo the blue serger loops just sticking out on the inside. My top stitching was a little funky but I used brown thread so it's fairly hard to see.
I choose not to finish the arm or bottom hems but rather left them to roll up. In this case it was a time constraint but when I think about it I like to buy shirts like this so why not make them this way? I do like using the coverstitch machine to finish the hems because it looks really good if it works out. If it doesn't work out right then it takes time to rip out the coverstitching, time which I didn't have so I played it safe.